Watch The Cast Of Yakuza 4 Beat People To Near Death

Sega’s gravel-voiced Yakuza trailer narrator is back with another Yakuza 4 video, this time introducing you to the playable cast’s different styles of combat. If you haven’t kept up with Yakuza 4’s cast, you can learn about Kiryu, Akiyama and Saejima here. Meanwhile, Tanimura’s corrupt-cop introduction can be found here.

Sega have Yakuza 4 planned for a Spring 2011 release. Following this game, the series takes on a bit of a bizarre twist with Yakuza: Of the End.

I really,really hate the narrator’s voice…he may have been perfect for a game like Red Dead Redemption but not for Yakuza.-___-
I think the best choice would have been a Japanese guy who speaks very good english but still has a Japanese accent.

Sadly, with how many awful movies he’s participated in recently, I don’t think Christopher Walken is aware he’s allowed to say no to a script. In fact, I think if you gave the man a check, he’d appear in your home movies, at this point.

But seriously, it’s basically a workable three dimensional fighter styled gameplay for battle incorporating some RPG elements in the character’s personal growth. It’s a bit Grand Theft Auto-esque in the fact that it’s a large bustling city free for your exploration with random battles interjected in such a manner that departs from the random battles of old. Rather then just a fight out of nowhere, there are always small little interactions to provide an excuse for the combat.

Such as bumping into common thugs in the backstreets who know not of your status or reputation, or a scam artist in the middle of the streets, pretending to be the mother of your illicit child, which in turn gets a ‘generous citizen’ who happens to actually be a partner in crime attempting to provoke you into either paying up in money or in bruises (remember, regular random battle here). Which in turn has you beating him up…

And the money you make tends to be them paying you to forget about what they did prior to them running away for dear life.

People might not like the comparison. But you can think of the game as an actual functional and quite entertaining version of Beatdown: Fist of Vengeance on the PS2. With far less loading time, greater transition, good cinematic experiences, sidequests which feels interestingly integrated and a somewhat simple but smooth battle system that does you well throughout the entire game.

You also get the feeling of badassery as you would from playing other hyper-machoed games, such as God of War. Although it’s far more relatable badassery as it feels quite a bit more feasable then beheading a god with your own bear hands.

i guess i’ll buy buy both Yakuza 3 and 4 huh? arghh i still need to buy Hyperdimension Neptunia and Atelier Rorona not to mention the new Ar Toncelico coming out and Marvel vs Capcom 3. im gonna be broke :(

Good god, I hope it isn’t. It takes place in Japan and therefore, everyone should be speaking in Japanese. Just as I don’t want to hear Japanese when I play a game that takes place in an English speaking country, I don’t want to hear English in a game that takes place in Japan.

In fact, if Sega ever do the smart thing (Okay, stop laughing, everyone, I know it’s unlikely Sega will ever do anything smart this gen) and release a Yakuza 1 & 2 HD collection for PS3, I very much hope they get rid of the English dub they gave the first one.

Heh, you do have a point, it must have slipped my head while I was typing that the game takes place in Japan. japanese dub please!

gatotsu911

Am I the only one who gets vibes of discomfort from seeing the yakuza glorified in this manner? I mean, they actually DO beat the crap out of people. REAL people. And those people are usually civilians. And let’s say nothing of their other morally questionable practices.

All kidding aside, I treat this game in the same fashion as I do GTA. It may glorify crime, but at the end of the day it’s still a game.

gatotsu911

I have the same problem with GTA, actually. Although at least that series doesn’t bother trying to make its protagonists appear heroic.

Also, you may laugh, but the other day I was reading a study that found that tolerance and social acceptance of the yakuza among contemporary Japanese youth is at an all-time high, and I can’t imagine this kind of shining publicity helps with that. We’re talking about criminals here, the scum of society. You want to know about the kind of things the real yakuza does that aren’t depicted in the Sega games?